House of Cards
by Araceil
Summary: Nana promised her son a new game if he got over 80-percent on his next test. She would regret that promise for the next two years as her world came crumbling down, like a cheap house of cards. SAO-survivor!Tsuna, pre-Reborn, Character-development!Nana. No Pairing.
1. Episode 1

_**000**_

**House of Cards**

_**000**_

_I do not own Sword Art Online, nor do I own Katekyou Hitman REBORN, both are owned by their respective creators and publishers. I'm just playing in their sandbox and adding my own spin to things. I make no monetary or material gain from these works._

_**000**_

Nana promised her son a new game if he got over 80-percent on his next test. She would regret that promise for the next two years as her world came crumbling down, like a cheap house of cards. SAO-survivor!Tsuna, pre-Reborn, Character-development!Nana.

_No pairing_

**Warning**  
Character death, Original Characters, Original Plotlines, Canon-derailment, AU, slight Iemitsu!Bashing.

_**000**_

**EPISODE ONE  
Tremor**

To say that Sawada Tsunayoshi was dreading his mother's reaction would be like saying Hibari-senpai was a _little_ violent. True, but an understatement. She had been really getting on his case about his grades lately, and he was worried about how she would react when she saw this latest in a long string of failures. He had always tried to tell her that Sensei just went too fast sometimes, that he couldn't keep up and missed things and didn't understand, but the words would dry up, turn to ash and rest bitterly on his tongue, never to be spoken when she turned her attention to him. Just like they did when he tried to ask the Sensei to slow down, or explain something a little more clearly.

And then she would sigh, full of disappointment, and give him a hug, all the while saying that she didn't care if he never got perfect grades, just that he tried his best.

But this...

He looked down dismally at the glaring red three on his paper, marked with thick juicy pen and a mocking frowny face, the characters for '_See me after class_' bleeding through the paper. He had been forced to sit there and listen as his Sensei told him that if he didn't buck up his ideas he would have to be kept behind another year, or perhaps go to summer school because his grades were just unacceptable – he had the lowest class-ranking of their entire year group. Lower even than those Yankii delinquents who never attended.

His mother was going to be so upset.

He wasn't wrong.

"Oh Tsu-kun," the chocolate haired woman sighed, the picture perfect Yamato Nadeshiko, soft and sweet, motherly and obedient who kept her house in order and cooked the most delicious food. She affixed him with a stern eye and Tsuna fought not to flinch, she wasn't upset, she was annoyed, and that was somehow worse because his mother just _didn't_ get annoyed with him, not often. That was how he knew he was in deep trouble. "This is your lowest grade yet!" she scolded, waving the sheet of paper in the air, "What did Yugito-Sensei have to say?"

He recoiled into himself a little at her tone, "...I might have to go to summer school... or repeat a year if they don't pick up," he mumbled in embarrassment.

Nana sighed gustily, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Tsu-kun, I love you. But this isn't acceptable," she told him softly after a moment, her hand dropping to card through his hair, "Do you not understand the work, or are you just having troubles in class? You can tell Mama anything, Tsu-kun, you know that, right?" she soothed gently and for a moment he entertained the idea of telling her about the small legion of bullies that trailed at his heels, pulling him down, laughing and jabbing. About how he was always assigned classroom duties while they ran off, how what little allowance was demanded for snacks and treats for them, how if he brought anything new into school it would be inevitably taken off him (he would never see his toy Gundams again, he was pretty sure he had seen Mochida-senpai melting one with a lighter behind the bike shed). But he couldn't. His dad had always told him that he was a man, and he had to handle his own problems, he couldn't bring girls into it, especially not his mother.

He shook his head silently, unable to verbalise the lie, the familiar bitter tang of unspoken words filling his mouth.

"Tsunayoshi."

His full name, uh oh.

"Tsuna... look at me, please." Obediently, with great reluctance, he did as he was told. His mother stared down at him thoughtfully for a moment before nodding to herself. "Tsuna... I want you to make a trade with Mama. If Tsu-kun can get over eighty-percent on his next test... Mama will get him a game from his Birthday Wish List."

His breath froze in his lungs. His Birthday Wish List? She would be willing to let him have one early?

"Do we have a deal? One eighty-percent for one game?" his mother asked seriously, holding a hand out to him.

Tsuna didn't think he had ever grabbed her hand so fast before in his life, pumping it up and down in his two tiny palms and nodding his head like a bobble-toy. "Yes! Yes, Kaachan! I'll do it! I promise!"

"Deal," Nana declared happily, and sealed it shut, in her eyes, by planting a big wet kiss to her son's cheek.

_**000**_

In one life, Tsuna would fail his next test and be denied the game he wanted.

In this life, Kikuri-Sensei ate a funny piece of sushi and was too unwell to come into class. As there was a test listed in his notes, but no examples, their substitute sensei, Ine-chan as she told them to call her, created her own.

They were to write a short story, using the five prompts on the board, it could be about anything but at least three of the prompts had to be used. They had until the end of the lesson to do their story and they were _not_ to put their names down. She would mark a number at the top of each story and lay them out on her desk for everyone to come and collect, once everyone had their stories, she would then give out their marks – no one would know whose number was whose unless they were told.

The prompts were: **Fantasy – magic – cute – octopus – sand **

Tsuna knew that Taka-kun wrote his story about a magical octopus that liked to flip the skirts of cute girls, but that was only because he liked to do it himself (he was a pervert and an enemy of women if Kurokawa-chan was to be believed).

Tsuna wrote six pages about a fantasy world in a desert, how the son of a knight had to grow up and become a man and rescue a Princess from the Sand-Kingdom because she was the daughter of the Octopus Queen, she was able to use water magic and bring green things and life wherever she walked which was why the Sand-Kingdom kidnapped her. She promised to bring the green life if the young Knight would help her get back home. So he did, and she did as she promised, the Octopus Queen was so impressed that she turned the Knight into a merman and made him the captain of her guard and her daughter's bodyguard. They were bestfriends forever after that.

It was his highest scoring 'test' yet.

92

The only reason it wasn't 100, Ine-chan assured him, was due to the spelling errors and lack of sentence structure. If he got the technical aspects of writing his story properly, he would have scored his first ever 100 percent.

He rushed home and burst in through the front door, crowing his victory.

"I did it! I DID IT!" he shouted as he scrambled into the kitchen, falling over as he kicked his shoes off and nearly broke his skull open on the doorframe.

His mother jolted and nearly dropped the bowl she was washing, "Tsu-ku - "

"I did it, Mama!" he shouted, barrelling into her, babbling excitedly as he waved his story at her. "I did it! A Ninety-Two!" he shouted.

It took a second for his mother to catch the black ink on his paper and the smiley face before she swept him up in a tight hug, pressing kisses across his face, "Oh Tsu-kun! I'm so _proud_ of you! Your first ninety-two ever!" she gushed, running her hands through her beaming son's hair. "This means celebrating! Oh, I'll have to cook all of your favourites! Well done, Tsu-kun! Papa would be so proud!" she exclaimed even as she set more kisses on his face and quickly moved away to the fridge to see if she had any hamburgers. Sadly, hamburger steak was pricey so she didn't buy it very often – ergo, there was none in the fridge, or the freezer. No matter. She quickly pinned the 92 onto the fridge with a few magnets (92 – her Tsu-kun a 92! She could just _burst_!), and made her way to the hall.

"It looks like Mama will have to go to the store in order to get some hamburger! Is there anything else Tsu-kun would like?" she asked brightly as she once again kissed her son on the forehead. Oh she couldn't wait to tell Iemitsu about this! He would be _so_ proud of his son! A 92!

Tsuna fidgeted, "A-ano... C-could I please have mint chocolate icecream as well, for dessert?" he asked.

"Of course!" Nana chirped as she pulled on her purse. She paused noticing Tsuna fidget further before frowning slightly – she was forgetting something.

Oh!

"Tsu-kun... upstairs on Mama's bed is your reward, just as we promised," she told him with a smile as she bent forward and kissed his forehead. She had queued for several hours this morning to get it, she had originally been planning on getting a different game but when she finally got into the game-store she noticed that this one title was underlined several times on Tsu-kun's list. It had been released that exact day, much to her luck she decided as she requested one of the non-reserved copies (there had only been three left!).

Tsuna's eyes went wide and she could see him visibly fighting off the urge to go tearing off upstairs immediately. She laughed and kissed his forehead again, "Go. Mama will see herself out. Now, it's hamburger steak and chocolate mint icecream, yes?" she clarified with shining eyes as her son nodded once again.

"Y-yes! Thank you, Okaachan!"

She smiled, watching him turn and scramble up the stairs. Slipping her shoes on, she stepped out of the house, closing the door behind her and double checking she had her purse as she made her way towards the front gate.

She jolted as Tsuna's voice burst out from the window over her head, "MAMA! MAMA! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" he shouted down to her, his face shining and flushed with excitement. "I LOVE YOU! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!" he shouted, flailing both arms, one of which clutching a game-box in a white knuckled grip.

She laughed, "Be careful Tsu-kun, you don't want to drop it!" she scolded, watching as he squealed and quickly shot back into the house, not even closing the window behind him. Ah to be young and excitable.

She hummed happily to herself as she walked down the road to the supermarket – the convenience store wouldn't have chocolate chip mint icecream. It was a long walk but it was also a beautiful day so she didn't mind. Though she did have to side step a small commotion going on outside an electronics store as she reached the shopping district. The supermarket was surprisingly quiet as she got a basket and began her familiar trek through the isles, picking up sea chicken, panko flakes, miso, dark soy, more rice, some crab sticks, and then what she came in for, hamburger steak and icecream – she even decided to get some cherryblossom icecream for herself as she was in such a good mood.

How strange, she decided on her way home, that there would be even more of a crowd outside the electronics store than before. All of them wearing such facial expressions too. Had something happened?

"Ano, excuse me, what's going on?" she asked as she approached the fringes of the large group.

A young man in a beanie hat answered her, "Seems like there's been some kind of huge gaming incident. Over seventy people dead and the number's climbing every few minutes," he explained with a frown before shifting aside to let her in closer.

"Ah, thank you," she said as she squeezed between the anxiously shifting bodies and squinted at the large screen, which thankfully had subtitles as it was mut-

_Ninety two dead in what is now being dubbed the Sword Art Online Incident_

Everything shuddered to a halt.

_More confirmed reports rolling in of individuals, regardless of age, gender, and nationality, mysteriously dying when disconnected from their NerveGear while running the newly released VRMMO 'Sword Art Online', also known as SAO. Thus far there has been zero response from creator Kayaba Akihiko, but ARGUS Online has released the following statement to assure all friends and family of the now deemed 'trapped' players of SAO - _

The shopping slid from her fingers as something rose in her throat.

Someone was screaming and it took a moment before she realised it was her.

She – she had _bought_ that game only earlier today!

Sword Art Online had been underlined so many times on Tsu-

_**TSUNA!**_

She tore away from the group, shoving the young man in his beanie hat aside as she sprinted back home, leaving her shopping behind.

Please! Please, Kami-sama! Please!

_DON'T LET HER TSUNAYOSHI HAVE STARTED TO PLAY THAT GAME!_

She banged into the front door, bouncing off it and almost falling even as she scrambled for her keys, breaking and bending back her nails as she stabbed herself with them in her haste, she didn't notice even as she flung the door open and sprinted up the stairs – leaving the door open behind her in her distress.

"TSUNA! TSUNA!" she screamed as she stumbled down the hallway to her son's bedroom and shoved it open.

Her heart dropping down to her toes when she saw him lying limp and still on his head.

That death machine on his head.

_**000**_

Looking back, Sawada Nana couldn't honestly say what had happened. Sometimes she had memories of frantically running her hands over her baby's face, sobbing into his chest and screaming for help until someone outside tentatively answered her distress by entering the house. Other times, she could have sworn she remained sitting, limp and silent on the floor in her son's doorway, staring at his tiny form, her heart, her soul slowly crushing under the weight of her horrified grief until the police and the paramedics arrived.

She couldn't remember. She didn't know what had really happened.

She remembered clutching her baby's tiny cold little hand as they rode to the hospital in the ambulance, that horrible machine still upon his head, hooked up to a portable battery-pack and software device, she didn't know what it was, she didn't keep up with such things. She just knew that this little grey device was keeping her son in that horrid game, and stopping that evil helmet from snuffing the bright light that was her precious baby's life.

She remembered that he was in a large ward, filled with other children wearing similar helmets, sobbing mothers and distressed fathers, confused and anxious siblings. There was one salary man shouting at a tearful nurse to get his son out of the game, he had highschool entrance tests next week and _didn't she know who he was? Could her tiny little underdeveloped mind not understand how important he was?_

Nana didn't remember what she said to him, she was completely at the end of her tether and witnessing this sorry excuse for a man shouting at the tearful nurse who was just trying to do her job, his wife sobbing harsh, bitter, terrified tears that only got more ragged the louder and more abusive he got – she found herself unable to stay silent as she sat beside her precious baby. Either way, the man subsided into red faced twitching silence before leaving. Abandoning his sobbing wife and his unconscious son.

More and more people were brought into their ward.

None of the nurses or doctors could talk to them, police were milling around with men in suits and one or two individuals who wouldn't have looked out of place as a Drama based Hikikimori-Hacker. They were talking in low voices, carrying expensive looking custom laptops, fingers flying swiftly over the keyboards as they examined a patient here or there.

She spent the night there. And remembered none of it.

The next morning, they were told that they would all be transferred to another hospital, one for long-term care. The woman whose son was next to her baby broke into fresh tears, her face already blotchy and tear-scalded.

Nana had a vague memory of holding her tightly, letting her sob against her shoulder and wail about her baby.

They were all in the same boat now.

She remembered organising the mothers, the siblings, arranging for phonecalls to family members.

She also remembered the heart tearing scream of one mother when her son's monitor flatlined and the blinking light of his helmet went dark.

She felt her legs go weak, sending her sliding limply to the floor as the woman clutched at her son, as the doctors and nurses rushed her, shoving her aside to reach her son. Chest compressions began immediately, one doctor actually climbing atop him as the hospital bed was rushed out and to a separate wing, a nurse remaining behind to deal with the hysterical mother who in the end needed to be sedated when she tried to physically attack one of the doctors.

The bed did not return.

The police drove the shell-shocked woman home.

She left, clutching her son's night clothes in a numb white-knuckled grip.

Her baby boy was dead.

The Death Game was real. It wasn't _just_ unplugging their children, unplugging them wasn't the only way for their children to die.

_**The game itself could kill them**_

Her hands were shaking too much. She dialled the wrong number three times now.

Finally she connected, and she waited, shaking from head to foot, twisting the coiled telephone cord between her fingers anxiously as it rang, and rang, and rang, and rang – and went to Answering Machine.

She sobbed a little then, "A-Anata, I-Iemitsu," she gasped, her voice breaking, thin and high with pain and fear. "Th-there's been an a-accident. Tsu-Tsuna's in the hospital, he's – he – I ne-need you, Iemitsu. W-we're at the Nosaka Namimori Long Term Care Hospital, Ward K. Come home soon?" she begged before she hung up.

She returned to Tsuna's side and held his hand for the rest of the day, stroking his tiny soft palm with all the love and support she could muster, and prayed that it reached him in that awful game.

Iemitsu did not call back.

Nana assumed he was already on his way home and did not hold it against him. She waited.

Two more young boys in the ward flatlined, and each time was just as heart-tearing as the last.

One of the nurses suggested that she go home to change, have a bath and get something to eat. Nana smiled and politely refused, she couldn't possibly leave her baby alone at a time like this. Please don't worry, his Papa is on his way. When he got here she would allow herself to get cleaned up but until then she wasn't leaving his side. Mollified and understanding, the nurse left her to it, but she did return a little while later with a tray of tea and coffee and biscuits for all the parents within the Ward.

Iemitsu did not come.

He probably hadn't got her message.

Nana called her mother and asked her to watch Tsuna while she went home to clean up and call him again. Perhaps the unknown number from the hospital didn't get through to his phone and was redirected? Overseas telecommunications were often unreliable, or so Iemitsu had often told her.

She called and left another message before returning to the hospital. She wasn't quite as bright and chipper as usual, but she decided that being doom and gloom would help no one and immediately got to work helping the other mothers. She sat with their boys while they got a bite to eat at the restaurants downstairs, she made sure they all had blankets when they stayed the night, she helped the nurses when it came to cleaning or anything she could think of.

But the days wore on.

And her calls to Iemitsu went unanswered.

And he did not show up to sweep her off her feet as he once did, he didn't appear and make everything better as he once promised he would.

She left endless messages on his answering machine until the day when the phoneline just refused to connect, leaving her staring at the hand-device with an expression bordering on betrayal and confusion.

She looked up Vongola Construction Ltd online and tried their main office, only for the phone to tell her the call could not be connected.

She wrote instead. It was her only address for him.

But he never came.

And in the time since this horrible incident occurred, she came to learn the identities of everyone within their little closed Ward. She befriended the mothers, made nice with the fathers, played with the children and watched over their most precious and helpless babies in their horrible game. And they in turn came to love her as a dear friend.

But Iemitsu never responded.

Half a year.

She... she was falling apart at the seams. She hid it well. But her son was a thread away from _death_. Lying like a cold, still, fish upon his gel-bed. And he wouldn't even grant her the courtesy of a _phonecall_.

He didn't _have_ to come in person – _she just needed to hear his voice, he just needed to tell her it was all going to be okay, that she wouldn't lose her baby like Kimiko-chan had just lost hers. She just... __**she couldn't be strong anymore!**_

The final straw was on Tsu-kun's birthday. He would be turning eleven today...

Nana didn't know how to feel as she stared down at the disgustingly cheerful little postcard in her fingers, the image of a baby marmoset monkey grinning back at her and the words: _Happy Birthday – keep hanging in there. Love Papa _written across the back – with no return address as per-usual.

"Keep hanging in there..." she echoed dully.

Oh.

So this was what pure unadulterated seething rage felt like.

_**000**_

**First chapter from Nana's point of view! Next one will be from Tsuna's.**

**Yep, I have always wanted to give Nana some character-development, she could be an interesting character if given half a chance but since she's been pegged the air-headed perfect Yamato Nadeshiko, she isn't allowed to be given development either in canon or fanon. She has to either be so stupid/oblivious that she's borderline abusive, or so perfect as a housewife that she knows all about Iemitsu's secrets and supports them and even knows how to use guns.**

**Nope, not happening here. Nana is going to be a human being, not a caricaturised ideal of anything.**

**Same with Tsuna. **

**As for the rest of the Vongola... They're a long way off. I want to play with Aincrad first. A lot of it will be my own original ideas as a lot of the lower levels are never explored (I still think the series would have been better as a shounen action series instead of a romantic one XP).**

_Also, it's my birthday today, so I figured I would upload this, another chapter of Storming Skies, Devil's Bride, and another new story called _The Hand You're Dealt, _a KHR centric story with a OFC in Gokudera's body, handles Transphobia issues and what not, so it isn't a comedy play going 'hurr hurr lets gender swap and have some crack in there'._

_Check 'em out if you like the sound of it _8DD


	2. Episode 2

_**000**_

**House of Cards**

_**000**_

_I do not own Sword Art Online, nor do I own Katekyou Hitman REBORN, both are owned by their respective creators and publishers. I'm just playing in their sandbox and adding my own spin to things. I make no monetary or material gain from these works._

_**000**_

Nana promised her son a new game if he got over 80-percent on his next test. She would regret that promise for the next two years as her world came crumbling down, like a cheap house of cards. SAO-survivor!Tsuna, pre-Reborn, Character-development!Nana.

_No pairing_

**Warning**  
Character death, Original Characters, Original Plotlines, Canon-derailment, AU, slight Iemitsu!Bashing.

_**000**_

**EPISODE TWO**

How could it have gone so wrong?

What had started as the best day of his life... had rapidly become the _worst_.

He sniffed, curling into an even tighter ball under the coarse (fake, wrong, false, _not real_) blankets of the Inn's bed. That Man's voice swimming in his skull, resonating, echoing back to him, circling like a shark around an injured seal, of water going down a drain. They sank into him, etched themselves onto his mind, onto his soul and seeped despair into his bones, grinding in that familiar learned helplessness he had been educated in by bullies his whole life.

There was no escape.

He was going to die in here, in this evil game.

His eyes squeezed shut as more tears dribbled from their clamped tight lids, he didn't want to see them shatter into the beautiful polygons of light that only drove home that this wasn't his home. This wasn't reality. He couldn't even feel what he should feel after so long spent crying, his eyes should have hurt, they should be sore and puffy and _burn_. But they didn't. All he felt was _hungry_. A deep, painful twist in his stomach that told him he needed to get some food. A lie. A falsehood. What did he need food for in a game like this? It was just data. He didn't need it, this body was fake, just light and polygons and numbers in a rhythm that made up a sick parody of his own form in reality.

He sobbed bitterly.

It had been three days... and he hadn't left his room since the Opening Ceremony.

"**Attention, Players.**

**Welcome to my world.**

**My name is Kayaba Akihiko.**

**As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world.**

**I'm sure you've already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat... this is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of Sword Art Online.**

**You cannot log out of SAO yourselves. And no one on the outside can shut down or remove the Nerve-Gear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the Nerve-Gear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying the brain and thus ending your life.**

**Unfortunately, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning, and have attempted to remove the Nerve-Gear. As a result, two hundred and thirteen players are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world.**

**As you can see, news organisations across the world are reporting all of this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a Nerve-Gear being removed is now minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game.**

**But I want you to remember this clearly.**

**There is no longer any method to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be forever lost. And simultaneously, the Nerve-Gear will destroy your brain.**

**There is only one means of escape.**

**To complete the game.**

**You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game.**

**Finally, I've added a present from me to your item storage. Please see for yourselves.**

**Right now, you're probably wondering, 'why?'. Why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online and the Nerve-Gear, do all this? **

**My goal has already been achieved.**

**I created Sword Art Online for one reason... To create this world and intervene in it.**

**And now, it is complete.**

**This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch.**

**Good luck, players."**

"Shut up."

_Good luck, players._

"Shut up!"

_Good luck - _

"SHUT UP!" he roared slamming both fists down on the bed, suddenly angry, furious, heart broken, terrified. "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP – SHUT – _**UP! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!**_" he screamed into the mattress, and then hit it again, and again, and again, and again.

He couldn't stop. He trashed the room, flung pillows across the room, threw the lantern hard enough into the wall that it shattered, shattered a chair against the floor and plunged its broken legs into the bed and _tore it to __pieces_.

"Shut up..." he whispered, panting in the centre of destruction, feeling the furious burn in his veins die down, and send him crashing to the floor again, shaking and cold. He was going to go crazy. Or die. He was only ten, and he was Dame... what chance did he have in this world? He couldn't even run away from the problem here, couldn't hide behind his mother, and there was no Kyoko-chan here to make it worth suffering through.

He felt like he was drowning.

The walls were closing in line a cage, a box, and he couldn't breathe.

His throat felt tight, not like it had when he was crying, but worse. Worse even than when Hibari-senpai caught him smuggling porno magazines into school because his so called 'friends' told him to. He had to get out – _he needed to get OUT!_

He scrambled out of the room, staggering and swaying as he stumbled down the stairs and bolted for the door of the Inn, barely registering the automatic "please come again soon" from the NPC old man behind the counter as he staggered out into the cobblestone street – and could finally breathe.

He wheezed, sucking in a massive lungful of air, tasting summer grass, smelling cooking meat and warmth and something on the wind that just... spoke of wide open blue skies and white clouds.

He breathed out slowly and felt his shaking stop as he opened his eyes and looked at this false world around him for the first time in three days. For the first time since the truth was revealed. He looked at it... and the anger didn't come.

The sky was flawless blue from horizon to horizon, distant fluffy white clouds trailing lazily across the open canvas as if they weren't surrounded by walls that trapped and enclosed them from the emptiness that was the limit of the Aincrad system. The sun was bright and warm, seeping through his basic leather armour and into his skin, chasing away the chill of fear that dug itself deep into his muscles. The streets were drenched in sunlight, pale yellow cobblestones and pale off-white sandstone walls, moss and lichen could be seen in places and stubborn grasses and weeds were growing through cracks in the gutters, their defiant green stems rustling slightly in the faint wind that breathed through the streets.

Almost without noticing, Tsuna's feet started moving.

The city was almost deserted, everyone was either hiding in the Inns like he had been, or outside the walls, fighting. Dying. Winning. Losing.

Almost without realising, his feet lead him into the Black Iron Palace, through polished black corridors. And then he came to a stop.

He stared, feeling the chill of fear grip him once again as he stared. Ten metres wide, stretching from one side of the chamber to another, polished black and gleaming with torch and candle-light, flickering shadows casting the white etchings of names, thousands and thousands of names, into stark golden relief on its surface.

Greyed out names, lines scored through them as if by a beastly claw, neat, impersonal lines beside it, simple dates and times, a location, and then...

'_Death by Falling_', '_Death by Outside Interference_', '_Death by Rending Damage_', '_Death by Impact Damage_', '_Death by Poison-', 'Death by -', 'Death-', 'Death-', 'Death-'_

Death.

Was this how he would be remembered?

A date, a place, and then a cold, mocking little note about how it happened? Making fun of the dead? Did that bastard Kayaba find this funny? Was this just a joke to him? A game? People were dying out there!

But... of course... it was...

It was just a game. All a game.

A pale shaking hand reached out, fingertips grazing a bright white and shining golden name.

'_Natsu_'

It _was_ a game, for all that it was life and death now.

It had always been a game, meant to be a game.

But... he wasn't brave enough to play.

His hand dropped, his stomach twisting painfully, he felt a hard, heavy lump in him, one that tasted bitter and felt worse than a punch to the gut.

What was he even doing here?

He turned and left the Monument of Life, stepping back out into the City and having to shield his eyes from the sun for a moment. Such a normal thing to have to do, was it even needed in this place where there was no real sun? No damage to be done to his eyes? But he had done it anyway, hadn't he?

He found his feet taking him to the centre of the plaza in front of the Black Iron Palace, staring up at the bell tower he remembered ringing with such a sonorous deep knell. A ridiculous little quote spring to his mind as he saw a bird take flight from under its eaves.

"Doom to whom the bell doth toll," he murmured, one of his father's old stupid bed-time horror stories swimming to mind. He had cried when he had been told the story and his Dad had to desperately backtrack the story and try to sooth him when he hid under his bedcovers and wailed about how scary it was. A bittersweet smile flickered over his face as his father's frantic babbling voice about a brave strong hero swooping in to save the day and bring a happy ending resounded in his head.

But there were no heroes here, were there?

His mother had been fond of inspirational quotes, he remembered, somewhat inanely. The calendar in the kitchen had one for every day of the week, you peeled a day off to reveal the new quote and she would always happily tell him what it was or what it meant. He wrapped his arms around himself and wished, with _all_ of his heart, that he was there, at home, with her, listening to her prattle about this or that. Have one of her delicious homemade breakfasts, he would gladly tolerate all the bullies in the world for a chance to be home, to sleep in his own bed, hug and laugh with his mother, hear her talk about her silly quotes and her television dramas, get a scolding for not tidying his room, or doing the washing up when she asked. He wanted to be _home_, but...

"If wishes were horses, even beggars would ride," he murmured. "If turnips were watches, I'd wear one by my side. If, If's, and And's were pots and pans, there would be no need for Tinkers," he finished.

Wishes were useless. If he wanted a result, he would have to do something himself. If he wanted to see his mother again, he would have to do something. But what _could_ he do? He was ten.

"Kains! Where is Kains?" a female voice cried, dragging his attention to the side, a small group of armoured people, scrapped and unhappy, confronted by an overweight girl with scruffy braids in Starting Armour. "Where's my brother?!" she screamed, gripping the breast plate of one of the boys.

He turned his head, a pained expression crossing his face, "He got separated from the group, he... He tried to hide but... The enemy didn't have eyes, he-he couldn't. Not properly. They..." he tried to explain, his voice hitching as the girl trembled, staring at him with a truly ghastly expression of horror on her face.

"...No... Y-you're lying... You're lying, right?! This- This is just his idea of a stupid joke, right?! Haha, Kains, very funny! Come on out, I promise I'm not angry! Kains?" she called, looking around, a manic expression on her face as the boy she grabbed earlier placed his head in his hands, shoulders heaving.

"Riruka... He's gone," he choked.

"NO HE ISN'T! HE CAN'T BE! HE PROMISED!" the girl screamed rawly, her voice rough as she whirled around on the boy, shoving him hard back into the rest of the group. "YOU'RE LYING! HE CAN'T BE DEAD!"

Tsuna stared at the unfolding drama, his stomach clenching tight in sympathetic pain for the girl who started to cry, falling down to her knees and sobbing her brother's name, the big guy in the armour gently wrapping his arms around her, ignoring the blows she feebly threw his way as she cried. A small part of him, calm, a little bit cruel, pointed out that they would have had a better chance if they had better armour and weapons. It had been three days and they had apparently been going out there beyond the walls and they were still in their Starting Gear. None of them had gone to the Armour Shop in order to get a new set.

Even Tsuna's leathers were a better defensive set than they were currently wearing.

He turned away from the tragedy and slipped off into the City, unwilling to witness it further, it was too personal for someone like him.

There were more people out now, barely, girls and boys slumped in the streets looking tired, dejected, wearing their Starting Gear. A girl sat beneath a tree obsessively watching it, he watched as one of the fruit fell and she desperately scrambled to catch it, squeaking happily when she did – only to immediately have three boys surround her and demand the fruit or suffer a beating. Frightened, she handed it over without a fight and the boys took off, leaving her beneath the tree in tears. Other players in armour with weapons nervously going over plans for leaving the City that day, lists of monsters that needed farming and equipment and items they needed to buy.

He wished he was as brave as them. But he wasn't, he was just Dame-Tsuna.

He opened his menu, and for the nth time, scrolled through to the still absent Log Out button, staring down at it dejectedly before his gaze slid to one side and onto one of those Players sitting in the gutter. He wondered who he was, and if he was as Dame as Tsuna was in reality, maybe even worse, because he had never sat himself willingly in a gutter. He had only ever been thrown, and... he always climbed back up again.

He always climbed back up.

He flicked through the menu to his Status Page...

Dame-Tsuna always got to his feet, no matter what was said, or done. It took some time, sure, and he almost always ran back home to hide his bruises and nurse his shame. But he got back up. He refused to crawl or wallow in the gutter. That was reality. That was his reality. Dame-Tsuna of Namimori.

But here... Here he was alone.

And no one knew who Dame-Tsuna was.

**NAME: Natsu  
****LEVEL: 2  
****HP: 400**

**EQUIPMENT-  
****WEAPON: Jagged Gladius  
****ARMOUR- HEAD: n/a  
****ARMOUR- CHEST: Leather Plate  
****ARMOUR- BRACER: Leather Vambracer  
****ARMOUR- FAULDS: Leather Belt  
****ARMOUR- GREIVES: Leather Trousers  
****ACCESSORIES: n/a**

**SKILLS-  
****SLOT 01: One Handed Sword  
****SLOT 02: Acrobatics  
****SLOT 03: Parry  
****SLOT 04: Battle Healing  
****SLOT 05: n/a**

**ONE HANDED SWORD SKILLS  
****Horizonal  
****Slant  
****Vertical  
****Rage Spike**

Here... he was Natsu, not Tsuna.

_Tsuna_ would have sat in his Inn room and waited to be rescued, he would have done what that girl did and handed over the fruit he caught, and he would have never left Starting City. Instead, he would have relied on the hard work of those braver and better than himself to save his life, without ever once trying to do something himself.

But... Natsu didn't have to do that, did he? Because he _wasn't_ Tsuna. Not really.

He was... everything Tsuna _wished_ he could be.

Supposed to be, anyway.

Why did Kayaba have to go and make this a death game anyway? Tsuna had been enjoying himself! He'd logged on the moment his mother had left the house, for two hours he'd run around the plains outside, fighting boars with gleeful abandon. He had been enjoying himself! He'd earned enough money to buy an improved set of armour, a new sword, and more Restoratives than he actually needed – he hadn't lost a single HP during his rampage through the boars, dodging them too quickly for an attack to land.

And then the bell rang, and everything changed, and now he was too scared to leave because what if he got hit? What if he d-

...Wasn't it strange... how he had seen Players die because of the Boars... and they hadn't come back on that first day?

Tsuna froze in the middle of the street, his mind turning that over thoughtfully.

He _had_ thought it odd when they hadn't returned, thought perhaps they hadn't wanted to return so quickly when they died and were embarrassed, but that couldn't be right. It was the launch day, dying was to be expected, it was supposed to be fun... So why hadn't they come back?

Had... they died, for real?

Had he been _playing the Death Game for real and not even known it?_

_If so – then – then he'd survived. He'd survived the Death Game, before he even knew it was a Death Game!_

He breathed deep. Feeling something twist in his stomach, fear, determination, something that propelled him forward even as his hands trembled like leaves in a storm.

He had survived the first day, hadn't he? He had survived, before he even knew about the danger.

That meant he could survive again. Especially now that he knew about it.

He swallowed tightly, patting himself down for his Potions, and his blade.

One trip out. Just one, not too far. He would go, kill a Boar, and come back.

If he was right... if he was right...

Then maybe there _was_ something he could do.

Maybe.

_**000**_

**And done. Goddamnit Tsuna, why you so hard to write when you're such a defeatist little wimp? Harry Potter wouldn't have been so wishywashy! *shakes fist* (lol)**

**Okay, I finally managed to shove Tsuna out of the city, hopefully now I can start him down the long journey to growing a goddamn spine. XDDD**

**Some questions appeared in reviews, here's some answers to the FAQs I got that won't affect any future plotplans I have going.**

1\. Will Tsuna meet his future Guardians in game?  
**Nope. With the exception of Irie I can't actually see any of the KHR people being interested in VRMMOs ****and**** the means to afford it. I mean, sure, Hayato might be interested, but at this point in time he definitely wouldn't have the money for it. So Tsuna will be the only KHR character in SAO.**

2\. How will Nana deal with Iemitsu?  
**I can't really explain this without giving away spoilers, but remember that Japan has a very different culture to America, one that really dislikes drama outside of television and focuses on the ideal of 'live to work', not 'work to live' as the West does. Also, children are given an awful lot more freedom and liberty by comparison. They're trusted more. But on the flipside, more is expected of them in return. Same with marriages, if you think the man in the house has the power, you'd be VERY mistaken. In a typical Japanese household, it is the wife that gives her husband an allowance to spend, SHE holds the purse-strings and the ultimate power in the home. So yeah, just be aware, things are different, and so is the Law. What may come across as illegal in the west (like children as young as four being allowed out ridiculously late and then sent on errands and such, etc), are perfectly acceptable there. I've done my research, so... yeah. It'll be shocking for us, but anyone familiar with some of the culture aspects will be alarmed but understanding. There are pros and cons to everything.**

3\. Will Tsuna have his Flames in the Game, or are they still Sealed by Nono?  
**Tsuna hasn't been trained in them, and as I've never watched the anime, I don't subscribe to the Seal theory. As of right now, they are dormant.**

4\. Are you going to play it straight with SAO, stick with what's shown in canon, or go in your own direction?  
**I want to play with Aincrad. I want to play in that sandbox so bad. So no, I won't be playing it straight, at least not entirely. I'm not going to change any of the canon aspects, I'm definitely going to add to them though. There's over 100 floors and 10,000 people to play with, and dang it, I wanna play! So there will be OCs, original Quests, monsters, items, Skills, etc. **

5\. How close to the SAO main characters will Tsuna be?  
**Hmm, toughie. Close and yet not. He will eventually end up a Clearer (as if you would expect anything less), so he'll be in contact with Kirito, Asuna, Klein, and Agil fairly often. But aside from instances here and there, as well as their professional relationship on the front-lines on top of a few other things, they'll be friends, but not bosom buddies. At least until certain shenanigans happen. (throws arms in the air) SHENANIGANS! I love that word. But yeah. Stuff happens, Tsuna happens, I say no more. It'll be a long time coming regardless.**

6\. How often will we be seeing Nana?  
**I'm figuring every five, maybe ten chapters, I'll be doing a Namimori interlude where we'll be looking at what Nana is up to, what's going on around town. I might look in on a few of the SAO player's families, like Suguha, Asuna's unnamed brother, Silica's parents, etc. I may even look in on what's up with Iemitsu – though I think not, there's STUFF happening there. Spoilers and what not.**

7\. How often will you update?  
**As and when I want to. Please don't pop up asking if this, or something else, is abandoned though, it is REALLY annoying. **_If you want to check if something is abandoned, check my Bio. I keep a list of fics that I have decided to stop working on, on that page. My bio isn't one of those long annoying ones you have to pick through in order to find them either. It'll have links to my facebook, where I post regularly, and my tumblr, where I am NOT so regular, but also have exclusive stories and other cool stuff._


	3. Episode 3

_**000**_

**House of Cards**

_**000**_

_I do not own Sword Art Online, nor do I own Katekyou Hitman REBORN, both are owned by their respective creators and publishers. I'm just playing in their sandbox and adding my own spin to things. I make no monetary or material gain from these works._

_**000**_

Nana promised her son a new game if he got over 80-percent on his next test. She would regret that promise for the next two years as her world came crumbling down, like a cheap house of cards. SAO-survivor!Tsuna, pre-Reborn, Character-development!Nana.

_No pairing_

**Warning**  
Character death, Original Characters, Original Plotlines, Canon-derailment, AU, slight Iemitsu!Bashing.

_**000**_

**EPISODE THREE**

Sword Art Online was a game.

Kayaba Akihiko once said that he didn't think it was a game meant to be played though, and Tsuna agreed. It _wasn't_ a game that you played.

It was one you had to live.

He knew that now, realised that the second the Boar vanished in a shower of polygons at the tip of his gladius.

He was still terrified, who wouldn't be? But regardless of whether or not it was something to be lived, or something to be played. There was one universal truth that he grasped with both hands as he gathered up the drop items from the Boar and turned to find another, fire in his blood, iron in his soul.

Games are for kids.

Before he even realised it... He was stood in Horunka, the next village over, panting slightly, eyes wide with his own surprise, standing pretty at level five, in his ragged leather armour, with his chipped Jagged Gladius, and drawing stares from the other players in sight.

He blushed, and quickly sheathed his blade and sheepishly slunk into the Inn where he got a meal of bread, a cup of water (to which the Inn Keeper apologised because there was some trouble with their cattle), and booked himself a room for the night. Once he had the key, he quickly made his way to the small Smithy they had in the village to get his armour repaired and see what kind of swords they had. He got his armour repaired, but there were no blades better than his current gladius, so he opted to keep his Kol and head back to the Inn instead.

He lay back in his bed at the Inn and sighed deeply. Then...

"HIEEEEEEEEE! WHAT DID I DO?! WHAT HAVE I DONE?! I COULD HAVE DIED! WHY DID I LEAVE STARTING CITY?!" he wailed, flailing and freaking out in his room, rolling across the floor, gripping his hair and generally spazzing everywhere, being noisy, panicky, and horrified at his temporary fit of insanity.

By the end of it, he ended up sprawled out on the floor beside his bed, instead of in it, staring at the wood grain under his fingertips.

That _had_ been dangerous. He _could_ have died.

But he didn't.

He didn't.

_**000**_

Everyone was staring. It was freaking him out more than a little bit as he awkwardly ate his bread in a corner of the Horunka Inn, cringing back as much as possible in his armour away from the stares and whispers of the other players. What did they want? Were they going to rob him as soon as he stepped foot outside the town? Were they going to demand he Party with them and use him as bait to agro the monsters? Hiieeeee! He didn't want to die!

As soon as he finished eating, he sped out of the Inn, only to be greeted by more staring Players. He swallowed, feeling a cold sweat beading at his temples as a few faces soured or twisted at the sight of him. Oh no! Oh no, oh no, oh no ohnoohno-nonono!

"Hey, you-" a girl spoke from his left, and Tsuna shrieked, nearly jumping clean out of his armour.

"HIEEEEEEEE! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" he squealed and sped off around the corner before she could say anything further. He banged into the barn of one of the properties, and ended up tripping over his own feet, tumbling headfirst into the nearest straw-pile with a "Hiek!" of surprise.

Silence.

He sneezed and slowly pushed himself out of the straw, grimacing and looking around in worry.

No one had followed him, which was good.

But he wasn't alone, which was bad.

"HIEEE! I'M SORRY FOR BARGING IN!" he shrieked when he spotted the milkmaid with her back to him, working silently with a scowl on her face as she did _something_ with an odd wooden bucket/pole thing. She didn't even twitch in his direction and Tsuna wanted to hit himself, an NPC, of course. Why would a player be lurking in a barn, wearing peasant clothing instead of armour? Slowly, he crept a bit closer, curious. Oh, she was churning milk! This must be the Milkmaid NPC. According to the beginner guides he read online, apparently you could get a quest from her. There were only a few notes on the first floor in the Beginner Guides, but it detailed only a handful of quests and monsters.

Should he?

Well, it couldn't hurt to find out what the quest actually was. He could always refuse it.

"U-uh, excuse me? Miss?" he asked, creeping closer.

The odd wooden quality of the NPC's repetitive movements faded away and she turned to him, scowl on her face as dishevelled strands of fly-away brown hair stuck up from under her cap. "Yes, what do you want?" she demanded shortly. It was only the knowledge that this was an NPC that prevented Tsuna from clamming up and quickly running away, this was a safe zone and she couldn't hurt him here.

"I-I heard that you needed some help?" he asked. Most Quest NPCs had a few keywords that they responded to, heard, needed, and help were the most common ones to trigger the Quest dialogue.

She grunted, turning away from her milk-churner properly and placing her hands on her hips, "Did ye' now? You some kind of adventurer?" she asked, frowning thoughtfully at his hesitant nod. "Hmm... well, you look like you know a thing or two. Alright. Some crusty yellow-bellied lout has been stealing the cows. That wouldn't be so much of a problem if they were staying away from the breeding herds and milk-cows. Oh no, this rustler is going after everything with four legs that goes moo without a damn care! Whiskin' them away up into the mountains to feed those potato headed beastly Ogres," she told him furiously, roughly brushing her apron of straw and practically snarling her tale. "I'll not have it any more! Father might be scared of the repercussions of angering those walking boulders but I'm more worried about what we're going to eat when the last of our cows goes missing! You bring that herd back and if you happen to find the rat-toothed little leech that's been upping them off, make him swallow his rotten teeth!" she commanded ruthlessly, hands on her hips.

In that moment, she went unnaturally still and a screen popped up in front of Tsuna.

_Accept _'The Heifer's Plot'_ quest from the Milk-Maid?_  
**O – X**

The Heifer's Plot, huh? If he recalled, that was a suggested level 3 quest.

He was already at level 5, which for the First Floor was enough of an EXP gap that it shouldn't be dangerous – if he wanted to handle the Floor Boss he would have to be at level ten minimum for a chance to survive. Tsuna swallowed nervously. It was just a Retrieval Quest. Get the cows back. He shouldn't run into anything exceptionally hard, should he? No. He shouldn't... but still...

He slapped his cheeks, he would get no where in this world by wilting away from Quests, especially ones he was qualified for!

He hit the accept button before he could tell himself this was a stupid and suicidal idea and he should stop and go back to Starting City and wait for the older Players to rescue him.

The milk-maid became animated again, and the lines on her face relaxed, "Thank you. Head to the west field over past the apple tree, that's where the herd was taken. Father says the ogres occupy the mountain pass over there. That foul loathsome little thieving cockroach should be in the low fields with twenty of our best stock. You bring them back, you hear me? There'll be a reward waiting for you if you do. But mind me, there'd better not be a _single_ cow missing! Or it's nothing!" she snapped, jabbing a finger into Tsuna's line of sight.

"HIIEEE, Y-YES MA'AM!" he squealed before bolting out of the Barn.

Scary! NPCs were scary!

He only slowed when he drew close to the well. Oh no, he took the quest. _WHY DID HE TAKE THE QUEST?!_

He was pretty sure he had gone white, and/or crumbled to dust in his horror, blown away on the synthetic wind. What was he going to do? He had accepted the Quest. He knew there was some manner of penalty for Cancelling the Quest – there always was – but there was also the fact that the cows would be eaten if he didn't! And Tsuna quite liked cows. He'd only seen a real one once at a petting zoo, a nice brown one that licked his hand and had a slimy nose. He'd cried when it happened and hid behind his mother, but he eventually decided he liked the cow 'Hinagiku' best out of the animals. Though the kitty came in close behind her.

He wasn't sure if he liked the idea of the cows getting eaten by Ogres.

He sighed and straightened up nervously. Right, sword, armour, items? Got them, good. He took a deep breath, and turned towards the West where he could see the not-so-distant outline of mountains. He took a deep breath and started off, ignoring the stares of the other players.

At least until he got to the Village Entrance and a young woman stepped in front of him, a frown on her round face.

"Where do you think you're going?" she demanded sharply.

Tsuna flinched and cringed back into himself, "T-to do the H-heifer's Plot Quest?" he questioned, terrified. Why was she talking to him? What did she want?

"Why aren't you in Starting City? It isn't safe out here!" she scolded, "This isn't a Game, kid, you could die out there!"

Tsuna flinched and sank into himself, "But... I want to help," he mumbled.

"You'll help no one by going out there! Come on, I'll take you back to Starting City. You'll help everyone a great deal more if we know you're safe and not getting underfoot," she told him gently, holding a hand out to him even as her other equipped a rather battered looking Starting Spear to hand.

Tsuna shook his head, "I already took the Heifer's Quest! I don't want the cows to get eaten!" he told her earnestly before darting forward, ducking under her desperate grab at the back of his armour.

"Hey! Where are you – you're going to get yourself – kid!" she shouted after his retreating form as he sped towards the West Field. He only had to pause once when an opportunistic wolf tried to take a chunk out of his leg by springing up out of the grass, his startled shriek was almost drowned out as he whipped around, sword glowing red with the activation of his Sword Skill Horizontals, as the Wolf exploded into polygons when the blade cleaved it in half. He flailed as the pop up screen detailing his drop items appeared, money and objects automatically going into his item pouch before he turned tail and fled towards the field, hoping to find some manner of relative safety behind the fencing.

It was a wide field, rolling green grass, daisies and buttercups here and there, the distant lowing of cows on the wind, and of course, the large brown beasts he was familiar with thanks to Hinagiku-chan. Only a few of them were black and white, like in those old kiddie picture books he had as a child.

He scaled the gate and dropped down on the otherside, tentatively approaching the herd as he saw a shadow beginning to flit between them. The Quest must have activated properly now that he had entered into the Field.

The Heifer was a small, thin, grimy NPC in dirty, ragged, and rather dandy looking clothing. A red velvet dinner jacket stained with unmentionable substances, a little torn in places – the stitches on the shoulders had popped. A dirty white shirt with a crooked sweat stained neckcloth tied somewhere down below his collarbones, and a pair of dirty brown trousers tucked into brown boots falling apart at the seams and covered in mud.

Now that Tsuna saw him, he knew he wouldn't be a hard fight. As he observed the little man, he grabbed the head-halter of one of the cows and gave it's backside a slap with the rope in his other hand, snarling at it to get a move on in a quintessential Hollywood cockney accent.

The cow lowed in distress and staggered forward as the thief pulled its head harshly.

Tsuna sped forward, upset, "You can't do that!" he shouted, flailing his arms, "Stealing is wrong!" he squeaked.

Heifer turned, and Tsuna blanched the second he realised a health bar had suddenly appeared above him, coupled with his name.

**Cattle Rustler Heifer  
HP: 500**

The rope shot out and Tsuna quickly dove to the side with a startled shriek.

The Heifer ran forward, the rope dropping as he pulled a dagger from under his dirty red coat.

Tsuna blanched when he realised the NPC was aiming for his stomach and twisted to one side, the Jagged Gladius in his hand igniting red with a Sword Skill – _Verticals_. The blade lashed upwards, slicing through the Heifer's arm neatly.

Had he been a normal enemy, a random encounter, it would have removed his arm completely. But as a Quest Boss, the attack would have only removed the arm if his health had been on the lower end of Yellow to Red. A thin red light lit up on the Heifer's upperarm where his blade passed through, and a fifth of his health drained.

Heifer yelled in pain and Tsuna flinched, scrambling backwards.

"HIEEEEEEEE! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!" he wailed even as the Heifer bellowed wordlessly and lunged after him. Tsuna squealed and sped away, how was he supposed to fight this guy?! He didn't want to kill him! What the hell was Kayaba thinking pitting people in a Death Game and then making the first Quest Bosses human shaped?

Tsuna shrieked when he ploughed face-first into the side of one of the cows, bouncing off and hitting the ground gracelessly.

Brown eyes opened and bugged out. The Heifer descending down above him, knife poised to kill.

His Acrobatics activated as he rolled backwards and pushed, flipping neatly out from beneath the attack.

Verticals activated again, a wave of scarlet light sweeping down as the blade of his Gladius tore down from the top of the Heifer's head through his neck, chest, waist, and then hit the grass beneath him.

His health dropped immediately to the red.

There was a flash of red and Tsuna scrambled backwards with another shriek as the Heifer activated a _Sword Skill as well!_ Aiming his rusty dagger for Tsuna's stomach again, trying to spill his innards across the grass.

Slant activated even as Tsuna fell backwards, arms windmilling out of reflex – the blade bleeding red and coming up without his control and through the Heifer's arm. Neatly reducing his HP to zero.

Tsuna hit the ground and goggled as the NPC went still, a Victory pop up appeared even as the Heifer dropped his knife and sprinted away, out of the field.

He... He did it.

He won. Kinda. The Heifer wasn't dead (thank Kami), so did that mean he would come back later?

"Oi."

"HIEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Tsuna squealed at the voice behind him, his Acrobatics kicking in as he tried to shove himself away, and ended up in a forward flipping roll that brought him into a neat action stance.

It was the girl from before, the one who wanted to take him back to Starting City. She wasn't very pretty. She had a round face, and a roundish body, she was overweight with thick thighs and large boobs and flabby arms. Her brown hair was in a loose ponytail over one shoulder, the anime mum death hairstyle he'd heard it called before. She didn't look happy, scowling at him in her starting armour, and beginner spear resting on her shoulder, she looked as if she weren't sure if she wanted to pinch his ear or give him a smack upside the head.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, "Do you have any idea how worried I've been? _Don't_ run off like that!" she scolded.

Tsuna pouted unhappily, "I don't need a babysitter," he mumbled. He had managed so far, hadn't he? Yeah it wasn't very _far_, but he'd done it! He wasn't a little kid, he was _ten_. He hadn't needed a babysitter in years, and he definitely didn't need one now.

"Look, kid - "

"Natsu," Tsuna interrupted rudely, pulling a face at her, "My name is Natsu, not kid, not child, not baby."

She sighed again, running a hand through her hair, "Natsu then. I'll be blunt, you're a kid. Too young to be out here risking your life. Go back to Starting City, _please_. We've already lost three people around Horunka already, and one of them was a Beta Tester. This _isn't_ a game. If you're out here, we're going to want to protect you, and that's going to put us in danger and get people killed."

"We're all stuck in here together!" Tsuna flared, "We _all_ have a responsibility to fight our way out! I'm not going to sit back and let other people die for me without even _trying_!" he exclaimed heatedly, the words falling out in a tumble. He hadn't understood what he had felt before now, until the words and their very meaning fell out of his mouth, but he knew it was true. He didn't want other people to fight, and die, to free him without even _trying_ to help himself first. That was cowardly, and painful, and it left a bitter copper tang in his mouth that tasted like fear and self-loathing. He was going to fight, he _had_ to fight, because men had to solve their own problems, that was what his father had always said, it was why he never told his mother about the bullies, about the overly harsh senseis, about how he didn't understand the way the class material was explained. He was a man, he had to solve his own problems. He couldn't sit back in Starting City without at least _trying_.

'_She needed a hero, so that's what she became_', his mother had that etched into her old highschool bokken that she used to beat the carpets with. It had been a gift from his father when they were younger when he first asked her out on a date, apparently she beat him around the head with it before telling him to meet her at the arcade (his mother had been a delinquent, and head of an all girl gang back in Highschool according to her).

The girl sighed in aggravation, she seemed to be contemplating something before she opened her menu and scrolled through a few options, selecting one here and there. A moment later, a screen popped up in front of Tsuna.

**Tir-nan-ogg wants to Party with you  
O – X **

Party? Team up?

He looked at her in askance.

"If you're not going to go back to Starting City, then I'll just have to be the one to keep an eye on you," she stated calmly, "Name's Tir-nan-ogg. Call me Tir. I'm a Spear user, obviously," she added, tapping it once again against her shoulder.

Tsuna contemplated the invite.

And then hit the Reject button so fast he stabbed his finger _through_ the screen and shattered it into polygons.

"I DON'T NEED A BABYSITTER!" he shouted, kicking her in the shin before turning on heel and sprinting out of the field – ignoring the frustrated and angry shouts of the girl he left behind. Did she think he was an idiot? He just told her he didn't _need_ babying – and there she goes, trying to trick him into accepting a Party request just so she can do _exactly_ that! He got to the village on his own, he even defeated the Heifer on his own! He wasn't _helpless_! He could take care of himself!

He quickly let himself into the Barn when he reached the village proper, the Milk Maid seemed much happier now and cheerfully gave him his Quest rewards, a chunk of Cheese, and a Leather Vambrace – an armour piece he already had. No matter, he could sell it at the blacksmith/farriers (a fun fact he learned while speaking to the muscled NPC in soot stained leathers, a farrier focused primarily on horses, shoeing them and trimming their hooves, they needed to know some blacksmithing for the production of the horseshoes, but they also tended to know more about veterinary care than most in their village).

He didn't see Tir-nan-ogg as he peered out of the Barn, she could still be out of the village, or lurking around a corner for him or something. He carefully, and warily, crept out of the Barn and went about looking for local NPCs to chat to, he wanted to do _all_ the Starting Quests in Horunka before moving on. He found a Sheep Farmer behind some fencing mumbling under his breath and looking upset with his head in his hands. From him, Tsuna got a minor Monster Hunting quest to kill five Frenzy Wolves on the grasslands that were worrying his sheep. It was an easily enough done quest given how Tsuna was killing Frenzy Wolves quite handily on his way to the village once he'd cleared the plains surrounding Starting City. He got a handful of Col and some Crafting Materials as a quest reward – ten spools of wool wasn't exactly of use to him given how he didn't have the Sewing Skill, and didn't want it either. It was just after Lunch and he found himself a third Quest for the day, a gathering one from a little girl playing with her cat outside one of the NPC houses. Because of the wolves worrying at the sheep, she wasn't allowed out of the village, and all of the flowers in her bedroom had died, she wanted him to go out and pick some flowers for her because she wasn't allowed to. And even though he wanted to refuse the quest, with those big blue eyes looking up at him he found himself caving to her whims.

He made sure to get her the prettiest pink, blue, and yellow flowers for her bedroom. His Quest reward for that was another Craft Item, Herbs, this time to be used in conjunction with an unknown Advanced Skill. In the last game he played, Herbs were used with Alchemy to make Recovery Potions. But... an Advanced Skill? He wouldn't be getting anywhere near Advanced Skills until at least the level thirties, to get Advanced Skills he would have had to Master the prior required skills.

Given how the sun was beginning to set, he opted to shell out the ten Col needed for another night at the Inn, and paid a further thirty Col for a decent if uninspired meal of black bread, cheese, a few fried mushrooms, and a large tankard of fresh creamy milk. Definitely worth the money spent he decided as he chugged the slightly chilled liquid with relish.

A loud crash and roar filled the air and an NPC came rushing into the Tavern, her face streaming with tears.

"The Ogres! The Ogres are in the West Field! Someone – someone please! They've taken my sister! They've taken my mother!" she cried as the NPC Inn Keeper rushed around to hug her, he looked over the Players, his face solemn at the frozen expressions on their faces. One or two though didn't seem to care, too busy with their meals, paying the unfolding drama no attention.

"Please, Honoured Customers, help our village! You will be safe within these walls, but the girls, the girls are in danger, would someone please save them?" he begged, and in that moment, the two froze and pop-ups appeared before everyone in the pub.

**LIMITED QUEST – Ogre Attack! - HAS BEEN ACTIVATED  
Note that all individuals within the village can parttake in this Quest and the Quest rewards, any who step outside the Village Bounds will enter into attack range.  
DO YOU WANT TO ACCEPT THIS QUEST?  
O – X**

Tsuna stared at the Quest in front of him in horror. A Quest? A _Limited_ Quest?

"Someone took the Heifer's Quest again," he heard one of the relaxed players complain in the corner.

"Doesn't anyone even listen anymore when we tell them to ignore the Milk Maid? Damn, the Limited Quest is such a pain, I never get a good Drop," a second player complained as he drank from his tankard of milk.

Tsuna swallowed against his dry throat. Oh no, this was his fault, he was the one who took the quest! And now there were Ogres attacking the village and stealing the girls, this was _his_ fault!

He pressed Accept and quickly jumped to his feet and ducked out of the Inn, heading to the West Field with a sinking feeling in the bit of his stomach. This was going to be a difficult fight, he could tell.

And he wasn't wrong as he caught a glimpse of his opponents.

He readied his Gladius and took a deep breath before stepping out over the village boundary.

"H-hey, you!" he shouted, stuttering in his fear as he pointed the blade at them, the little sister being held by her hair, sobbing, as the mother tried to pull her arm free, hitting at the Troll's hand that engulfed her whole arm furiously. "Let them go! Y-you're facing m-me now!"

The two NPCs were dropped, and they fled back towards the village with sobs as the enemy turned to face him, his mouth going dry as he realised just how in over his head he was as health bars appeared overhead.

**Ogre  
HP: 800**

**Troll  
HP: 500**

**Troll  
HP: 500**

He was going to die.

_**000**_

**And chapter end. The Heifer is mentioned in the anime, Kirito gets a pot of cream from a quest called 'The Heifer's Revenge' in the village just before he reaches Tolbana where the Labyrinth for the next floor is. I decided to make the Heifer something of a reoccurring villain in Floor One, otherwise why would he be looking for Revenge?**


	4. Episode 4

_**000**_

**House of Cards**

_**000**_

_I do not own Sword Art Online, nor do I own Katekyou Hitman REBORN, both are owned by their respective creators and publishers. I'm just playing in their sandbox and adding my own spin to things. I make no monetary or material gain from these works._

_**000**_

Nana promised her son a new game if he got over 80-percent on his next test. She would regret that promise for the next two years as her world came crumbling down, like a cheap house of cards. SAO-survivor!Tsuna, pre-Reborn, Character-development!Nana.

_No pairing_

**Warning**  
Character death, Original Characters, Original Plotlines, Canon-derailment, AU, slight Iemitsu!Bashing.

_**000**_

**EPISODE FOUR**

He was stupid. Oh so very stupid.

And now he was going to die and make his Okaachan very sad – even if she would be better off in the long run without such a pathetic dame son.

The two trolls were ugly, lumbering things, a kind of green-grey colour that reminded him of mouldy food. They had thick tree-trunk like legs, wide waists and heavy jiggling bellies, wearing brown loin-cloths with bones tied onto crude belts around their waists. Broad potato-like heads plonked on wide shoulders, they looked misshapen and almost comical – if his inevitable death could look amusing. The one on the left was armed with a heavy spiked club, while the one on the right had a rusted great sword clenched in one meaty paw. Between them, the ogre was a vivid coppery red, almost glowing in the torch-light from the village behind him, his jaw was square and wide with two yellowing and chipped tusks poking out from thick rubbery lips. He was built like the trolls, but bigger, taller and wider, and had a necklace of human skulls and grasses around his neck. He had a large double-headed battle axe, and there was another sword made of bone at his waist.

The closest troll, the one with the club, reached for him.

Tsuna screeched and, abandoning all pretence of dignity or his fragile barely scraped together bravery, turned tail and sprinted full tilt to the left. He didn't even think about trying to get out of the field by climbing the fence, or going back into the village's safe-zone. He just ran.

In a circle.

In the fenced in field.

Screaming.

Dame-Tsuna, an embarrassment to the end, he was going to die a useless shrieking idiot who didn't even _try_ to fight back.

"Natsu!" he heard a girl call, Tir-nan-ogg vaulting into the field and plunging her spear down into the thick back muscles of the troll still chasing him. "Are you alright, kid?" she shouted as she planted both feet on the monster's shoulder and launched herself off him, ducking into a roll that took her out of the retaliatory swipe the sword wielding troll threw her way.

She scrambled to her feet and chased him, drawing up to his side in short order as he nodded mutely, shaking violently as it sank in that she was talking to him.

Tir huffed and clocked him upside the head with her clenched fist, "What happened to all that talk earlier brat?" she demanded harshly before skidding in the mud and readying her spear, "Just get back to the village. I'll take you back to Starting City tomorrow morning!" she shouted even as her spear activated with a Skill, glowing blood red in the dark.

Tsuna stumbled, and pressed his shivering lips together as he felt his eyes burn. He was useless. Dame.

"NATSU – DODGE!" Tir's voice tore through the air.

Red filled his vision as he looked up.

The red Ogre had lunged in front of him while the other player was busy with the two trolls.

Tsuna's eyes went wide as he stared at the monster bearing down on him.

So this was how he was going to die?

Level seven, on the second village, barely four days into the start of the Death Game. Killed by a Limited Quest boss that he stupidly tried to tackle on his own.

He didn't want to die.

It would make his mother sad.

_Rage Spike_ activated as he lifted his Gladius.

He didn't want to die, he _couldn't_ die, he _wouldn't_ die, he REFUSED to die!

Not here! Not now! Not to this game!

He was Natsu. He was level seven, he'd defeated the Heifer single handedly, he'd slayed all the wolves between Starting City and Horunka! He wasn't no good, _or_ useless!

He could do this!

He _would_ do this!

He grit his teeth, and he let the skill release – his body burst forward, the gladius stabbing into the ogre's side and then tearing through as Tsuna overshot under his raised arm, skidding in the mud.

He felt sick.

He dug his feet in, twisting as he pressed the toes of his shoes into the earth until they found purchase, and then he lunged forward again. He flashed past the red ogre, the swordwielding troll, Tir, and straight into the troll with the club. A second Rage Spike discharging, this time into the monster's throat as Tsuna launched himself into the air.

The system flashed with a critical hit announcement even as Tsuna braced his feet on the monster's collarbones and flipped away, his Acrobatics skill taking him well out of the retaliatory strike the troll tried to hit him with.

Perhaps it was the fact that Tir was there and he wasn't alone, or it was because he remembered that no one knew about Dame-Tsuna in Aincrad and he could be whoever he wanted to be, or the thought of his mother crying over his grave, but he stopped screaming. Too tense, too terrified to do anything but grit his teeth against the screeching in his throat, hold his breath, and attack, attack, _attack_, and attack again! At every opportunity, _Horizontals_, _Verticals_, _Slant_, _Rage Spike_, skill after skill lighting his Gladius up a vivid blood red, dodging out of the way of earth shattering strikes with far more grace and agility than he actually possessed, his Acrobatics skill easily his greatest asset in combat.

From the corner of his eye, Tir flickered in and out of view, her spear lancing out and tearing red gouges of polygons in showers of glittering light. She was good.

Between the two of them, they made short work of the two trolls, dodging and ducking around the red ogre whom, even without speaking to one another, they unanimously decided to leave for last and tackle together.

On his own, without the trolls to distract or support it, the ogre was hardly a threat.

His size made him a bigger target. He was slow. And while strong and possessing nearly double the hit-points of the trolls, he just couldn't land a hit on either Player for that strength to even matter. His attack patterns were easy to predict, huge diagonal swipes with that ugly battle axe of his, left – right – left – right, jump and a two handed slash downwards.

Between the two of them, they slowly chipped his HP down. Shaving it off with every strike as they flitted and danced around him.

Tsuna knew he should have been sweating like a pig by this point, he wasn't an athletic sort of child. He'd been fighting continuously for what felt like an hour when finally, _finally_, with one last lash of Tir's _Lancer_, and his _Verticals_ technique, the red Ogre shattered into pearlescent shards of light.

Fractured polygons glimmering in the torchlight of the village behind them as they panted, limbs rubbery and near useless as their own mental fatigue told them they should be.

**'TIR-NAN-OGG AND NATSU HAVE WON. LIMITED QUEST – 'Ogre Attack!' – HAS BEEN DEFEATED.  
****Note that all individuals within the village can parttake in this Quest and the Quest rewards, any who step outside the Village Bounds will enter into attack range.**

**Natsu has levelled up. Natsu is now Level 8.  
Natsu has levelled up. Natsu is now Level 9.**

**Natsu has received x1 'SERRATED BONE SWORD', x1 'BONE AMULET'.'**

"W-we won?" he wheezed, shivering in terror. His heart was pounding hard enough to burst out of his chest, like the frantic beats of a hummingbird trying to stay aloft.

"Yeah," Tir gasped, "Damn, you fight good for such a brat," she observed as she dropped back onto the grass, spear clattering down beside her.

Tsuna was too tired to blush as he sprawled out beside her, "You're – pretty good – too," he wheezed, prompting a laugh from the girl.

"First guy to ever compliment me on my combat abilities in a game, and he's a little gaki. I'll take it though. Thanks," she said with a kind of self-depreciating laugh that just confused him. But he was too tired to question her. He'd seen online posts here and there about how girls often felt dismissed or mocked by male players for wanting combat roles in games, he guessed Tir was one of them.

Tsuna breathed deep, staring up at the night sky above him, at the alien star constellations, feeling the tickling of fake grassblades on the back of his neck, against the tips of his ears. He could smell the wet heat of the cows near-by, the smell of the torches from the village, hear the distant howls of wolves from the wild-lands between villages, laughter and low buzzing conversation.

This world was fake.

Their surroundings were fake.

Even their bodies were fake for all that they looked as they should have.

But their minds were real, their situation was real, the threat against them was real.

And they were going to have to live with their very real danger, in this very fake world.

"I'm still not going back to Starting City," he told the spear user as he got his breathing back under control.

He heard her snort, "Kid, at this point, I'm thinking of asking you to join our Guild. We could do with a Forward as fast as you," she stated with a pained huff, "But I would never forgive myself if we dragged you into danger. So, I'll just ask you one more time to go back. It'll be safer for you back there, you've got your whole life ahead of you kiddo. Let us worry about clearing the game," she said quietly, staring out over the field as Tsuna rolled his head to look at her.

"No," he refused stubbornly.

She snorted and hauled herself to her feet, "Alright." She grabbed her spear and opened up her menu, she keyed through it a moment before a pop-up appeared in front of his eyes.

'_Tir-nan-ogg wants to add you to her Friend's List.  
O – X_'

"Just, throw me a message now and again, tell me you're still alive. And if you do need help, even if it's just a case of not having enough money to buy a new set of armour. Drop me a line, I'll see what I can do," she told him seriously, "Otherwise I'll be grey before we get out of this game from worrying over your scrawny butt!" she declared, pointing her spear at him.

Tsuna flinched and flashed her a wobbly smile. "I can do that," he admitted quietly before accepting.

The first friend in his life... and she was not only ten years older than him, but they were fighting for their very lives.

_**000**_

His Gladius was perhaps three good fights from shattering.

Tsuna sighed mournfully as he exchanged a paltry amount of Col to the Blacksmith in order to just get a few more points of durability back on his weapon. That fight against the trolls and the ogre had nearly destroyed his sword, his armour was fine, none of them actually even managed to land a hit. But his gladius... that was a different matter. The trolls had high defence, the ogre may as well have had the durability of a kami-damned mountain.

He needed a new sword, and preferably quickly.

He would need some more Col before he could buy a similar blade though. His 'Jagged Gladius' was a double-edged straight sword, he only had the Skill branch for the One Handed Straight Sword weapon set. The 'Serrated Bone Sword' he got from the Limited Quest was part of the Two Handed Curved Sword weapon set, like daikatanas, and scimitars. He didn't have the Skill slot for it. Well, he _did_ but he was saving the slot for a support skill like cooking, or blacksmithing.

He was going to have to do some quest grinding in order to get enough Col for a new sword.

Tir-nan-ogg had left earlier that morning with the rest of her Guild, three other guys, apparently they were all part of the same university Robotics club, and were such insanely huge Monhun enthusiasts that the second they heard SAO would be coming out they jumped on it in the hopes of finding similarities, or at least preparing for a Full Dive VR-Monhun game in future. Tsuna had to admit that sounded awesome, he'd racked up some three hundred hours on Freedom Unite himself. The downside to her moving on meant that he would be having to do his questing alone, which... well, he'd be lying if he said it wasn't a little lonely. He hadn't _wanted_ to party with her, but until he'd actually made a friend, he hadn't realised how much he wanted a connection to another person, any person.

He missed his mother.

He missed school. Kyoko-chan and her lovely smile, like dawn breaking across the horizon and sunshine that seeped through dark clothes to warm you up to the bone. Kurokawa-chan who was so smart and witty, even if she wasn't very kind sometimes, she never failed to have Tsuna giggle quietly to himself whenever she took it upon herself to scold one of their classmates. Friendly and outgoing Take-chan whom he used to play Gundams with when they were little, who still tried to get him motivated and included when it came to school sports. Even if no one else picked him, Tsuna knew Takeshi would let him onto his team, no matter what anyone's protests were. He even missed Hibari-senpai, who would bite his bullies to death and hiff at him when he squeaked before stalking off, reminding him so much of that fluffy black cat that used to hunt the birds in their backgarden.

His relationships weren't what you could call close, or particularly healthy, but they were his, and he missed them.

Right now, it was just him, and he was alone.

He slapped his hands onto his cheeks, forcefully trying to dispel his longing and homesickness. He needed a new sword! His gladius was on its last legs and if he didn't get a new sword soon, he would be in trouble!

That meant Col.

He combed the village for Quests again. He retook the Wolf Hunt quest from the sheep herder, he retook the Heifer's Plot from the milk maid in the hopes of another Limited Quest, but it didn't trigger. He supposed it only went up the first time someone performed the quest. He ended up doing the Wolf Hunt three times before he went in search of restoratives.

He was directed to the Village Missus as apparently she ran the item shop, but as it was closed, he had to go to her home directly. Which was a bit weird, perhaps she had a quest or something?

Stepping into her house, he peered around the sparse dwelling, eyeing the pot of stew on the fire, it smelt good, and the worn furniture. The table was littered with herbs, bottles, roots, various powders on little squares of grease paper, a mortar and pestle, jugs of water, and a pill box.

"Oh, my apologies, I didn't hear you come in, traveller," the Village Missus spoke suddenly from the sink as she turned around.

Tsuna fluttered a little, "I-I'm sorry to intrude," he spluttered nervously.

The Village Missus smiled tiredly, "Would you like a cup of water? I'm afraid we don't have anything else to give," she offered, looking apologetic. Tsuna glanced to the pot of stew but nodded none the less, it was, afterall, her right to refuse to feed a random stranger that just showed up in her house without knocking. Especially if the backstory of this village revolved around the cattle being stolen, meaning their food-stores would be low.

"Yes please, thank you," he said as she bustled back to the cupboards and retrieved a clay mug that she dipped into a bucket of water, probably from the well out in the centre of town.

She handed it over silently and Tsuna gratefully took a sip, just as the sound of coughing reached his ears.

It was feeble, breathless, and a little wet, coming from upstairs.

Tsuna frowned, glancing upwards, "I-is everything alright, Miss?" he asked slowly, "If this is a bad time I can come back later?"

The Village Missus shook her head and heaved a sob, freezing Tsuna to his seat in horror, she dropped down onto one of the chairs and placed her head in her hands, "I just don't know what to do anymore. My daughter. She has taken ill and _none_ of the medicine in the markets will help her. I've tried everything, even mixing and combining them with rare herbs and roots. She just gets worse and worse. The only thing I _haven't_ tried is the milk of the Little Nepent, but it's impossible to get!" the woman explained as the coughing upstairs turned into a hacking death rattle that made all the hairs on Tsuna's arms stand straight.

"That's... awful," he managed to say, unable to really say _anything_ else.

The woman looked up at him, her eyes wet and somewhat feverish, "You... traveller, you can fight, yes? Please! Please, go to the West Forest, it is positively _crawling_ with Little Nepent! Please, fetch me an ovule for my daughter! You must hunt the Nepent with the flower, it is the only one that can save her! I'll give you my father's sword if you do! The Anneal Blade! He was a great adventurer, he would not begrudge my trading it for his granddaughter's life! Please, traveller, will you help us?"

Tsuna gaped as the Village Missus went still, a quest box appearing in front of him.

'**SECRET QUEST – Secret Medicine of the Forest – HAS ACTIVATED.**

**O – X**'

A quest to kill a single monster, fetch an item, and in exchange he gets a _sword_ that the beginner guides said was viable until the third level if you continued to upgrade it via the blacksmith – just without telling you how to get it?

He hit the accept button so fast he smashed a hand through the screen in his haste.

_**000**_

**And Boom. Episode four finished. Tsuna's still alive and kicking, Tir has given up forcing him back to Starting City as she can see there's just no talking sense into him – so she's just keeping as much of an eye on the situation as she can. And now Tsuna's about to embark on his first Secret Quest.**

**This ought to be fun.**

**Merry Christmas!**


End file.
